Marketing teams often stop efforts towards prospects once they have scheduled a demo. At this stage, the responsibility of closing the deal falls on the sales team, while marketing focuses on acquiring more prospects for the pipeline.
In the realm of enterprise sales where multiple decision-makers are involved, obtaining buy-in from everyone becomes a complex and time-consuming process.
Throughout these long sales cycles, there are ample opportunities for marketing to support and expedite the sales process. Unfortunately, companies often fail to capitalize on this potential which they often employ the same generic messaging in their advertisements, which can be counterproductive.
Fortunately, there are specific strategies to aid sales organizations during extended sales cycles. Let’s explore 4 content strategies and provide insights on how to execute these tactics in your own organization.
Sales and Marketing Must Work Together
Despite the need for collaboration between sales and marketing, there's always room to improve collaboration.
But when dealing with high ticket B2B deals, it is illogical to place the sole responsibility of closing prospects on the sales team during lengthy sales cycles when there are plenty of opportunities to stay top of mind throughout the weeks and months sales takes to close a deal.
Also when considering the budget allocated to prospecting campaigns, the actual size of the pipeline is significantly smaller, making the budget required for marketing efforts negligible in comparison. Therefore, it’s believed that leveraging marketing beyond the stage of demo signups is an obvious decision.
Seamless coordination and collaboration between sales and marketing are crucial for the successful implementation of the subsequent content ideas we will present.
1. Repurpose Your Content
For B2B customer journeys, it is important to acknowledge that prospects encounter numerous touch points, resulting in their exposure to only a fraction of the content sent to them when they are classified as marketing-qualified leads (MQLs).
It is also common for the content designed for MQLs to serve the same purpose as content intended for sales-qualified leads (SQLs), namely, addressing inquiries, overcoming objections, and assisting in the sales process. Therefore, one effective strategy is to repurpose this content.
Consider a scenario where a 15-day email series is employed to engage MQLs. Within these emails, links to educational blog articles or customer success stories are included. However, it is highly likely that a significant portion of highly interested prospects have only read a fraction of this content by the time they transition into SQLs.
Another strategy is to repurpose these types of content involving an omnichannel remarketing approach that specifically target SQLs, with the primary objective being to encourage watching the content.
2. Video Testimonial Remarketing Ads
Source a few of your customers to record a testimonial! Polish the content and build paid remarketing campaigns through YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram to catch your future prospects where they active online online.
While not everyone may have access to a customer praising their product, securing a genuine testimonial from the right customer (or customers) can be an incredibly powerful content piece that can be used to excite prospects and speed up deal closes.
3. Battle Cards Into Comparative Comparison Pages
Numerous companies employ "battle cards" as resources for their sales personnel to effectively address common objections raised by prospects, ensuring a consistent approach throughout their sales team.
It's a treasure of information but the content of these battle cards frequently remains for internal use only and is rarely utilized as marketing collateral on company websites.
While some aspects of the battle card content might be incorporated into a competitor comparison landing pages, there is often untapped potential for leveraging content to enhance the effectiveness of these pages.
4. Use Sales Calls For Content Inspiration
Sales calls offer a wealth of valuable insights and opportunities for the marketing team to derive inspiration and enhance content creation efforts. By actively participating in or closely analyzing sales conversations, the marketing team can gain a deeper understanding of the questions, concerns, and objections commonly raised by prospects.
This firsthand knowledge enables them to develop targeted and relevant content that directly addresses these specific pain points. By crafting informative blog articles, engaging FAQ sections, or instructional video tutorials, the marketing team can provide comprehensive answers and solutions that resonate with the target audience, increasing the effectiveness of their content.
Moreover, sales calls serve as a rich source of customer stories and testimonials, which can be transformed into powerful content assets. These authentic experiences and successes shared by customers during sales interactions add credibility to the marketing efforts.
By capturing and showcasing these stories through compelling case studies, customer spotlights, or video testimonials, the marketing team can create persuasive content that demonstrates the real-world benefits and outcomes of their products or services.
These customer-centric narratives not only resonate with potential buyers who can relate to the challenges described but also establish trust and credibility, influencing their purchasing decisions. By leveraging the insights gleaned from sales calls, the marketing team can create a wide range of content that effectively addresses customer concerns, builds trust, and ultimately drives conversions.
Conclusion
By fostering a culture of collaboration, shared goals, and mutual respect, marketing and sales teams can align their efforts towards a common objective: driving revenue growth.
Together, they can optimize the customer experience, increase conversion rates, and build long-term customer relationships. In today's competitive business landscape, the integration of marketing and sales functions is not just a desirable option but an imperative for sustainable business success.